Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Nat Lofthouse RIP

It's funny what you remember. I can clearly remember reading the sports page of the Sunday Independent on May 4, 1958 with great disappointment. Manchester United were beaten 2-0 by Bolton Wanderers in the English Cup final the previous day and the Wanderers' centre forward Nat Lofthouse scored the two goals.

I had been a United supporter since earlier that year when the Munich crash took place. The second goal, with Lofthouse bundling the keeper Harry Gregg, who had survived the crash, over the line should have been a free even by the rules of the time. We were robbed!

Above is the Sunday Independent report written by the chief sports reporter with Independent Newspapers at the time, W P Murphy, affectionately known to many soccer supporters as Waste Paper Murphy.

Nat Lofthouse died on this 15 January aged 85. The Guardian obituary here mentions a poem. The ITN report here contains film of the Gregg goal.

1 comment:

Reading about the goal he scored to earn him the Lion of Vienna nickname when he was kicked, punched, elbowed and finally knocked unconscious on his run from the halfway line to the goal, it makes you wonder if Drogba, Keane, Torres etc would have ridden the first tackle!

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I'm a retired teacher and ICT Advisor who writes history and poetry. A native of County Sligo now living in Meath. A member of LitLab the Cavan/Meath Writers' Group, of Boyne Writers, Trim, County Meath and former editor of their magazine Boyne Berries.